In Memoriam

Shortly before he died this month at age 91, some of Harry Dean Stanton’s closest friends gathered for a sort of living wake. Herewith, Rebecca De Mornay, Ed Begley Jr., an ex L.A.P.D. cop, a guy named Mouse, and more remember the philosopher poet of character acting.

When Harry Dean Stanton died at the age of 91 on September 15, he left behind a legacy of incredible Hollywood stories and a career of indelible performances—and, as it turns out, there is still one more. At the age of 89, Stanton played his final starring role, and only his second since 1984’s Paris, Texas, in Lucky, which will premier later this month. The film, co-written by Drago Sumonja and Stanton’s longtime friend Logan Sparks, is a thinly veiled glimpse into what is essentially Stanton’s own life. Like the man who plays him, Lucky is a smoker, a yogi, a Bloody Maria enthusiast. (It’s like a Bloody Mary, but with tequila instead of vodka.) He’s also a loud and proud atheist. But when Lucky takes a serious fall in his kitchen—the possible result of a stroke, though the film isn’t clear on that point—he begins to ponder his mortality.

The film is mesmerizing—an existential examination of the tao of Harry Dean Stanton, who contracted pneumonia in early July of this year. While his close friends knew his condition, Stanton specifically said that he didn’t want the public to know he was ailing. Perhaps he waited for the very last minute so that his inner circle could have the final word.

For two nights in August, Stanton’s closest friends—including Sumonja; Sparks; Rebecca De Mornay; Ed Begley Jr.; John Carroll Lynch; a retired L.A.P.D. cop; and a barfly who goes by Mouse—gathered in Los Angeles to celebrate Harry with two late dinners, long conversation, and a heroic number of after-hours drinks at his favorite watering hole and restaurant, Dan Tana’s. I traveled from South Carolina—and brought along Bret Easton Ellis—to join in the reverie as the crew closed down Dan Tana’s both nights. It was the least we could do.

Rebecca De Mornay (actress and close friend; dated Stanton in the early 1980s):

I’ve known Harry Dean since 1982, where we met on the set of One from the Heart. He hit on me, and I was 33 years younger than him. He had a great pickup line: “Do you believe in magic?”

Ed Begley Jr. (actor, environmentalist): Harry and I really started hanging out in 1974, and I would close Dan Tana’s with him. We were working, but we were at Tana’s every night. We got a job in Macon, Georgia, with Warren Oates on the movie Cockfighter—we were shooting for about a week, and it occurred to me that we should probably call up Tana’s to let them know we were still alive.

I called them up—I still remember the number—and heard Guido say, “Good evening! Tana’s!” I said, “Guido! Ed Begley here. I’m with Harry Dean.” Guido cried out, “Oh Jesus Christ, thank God! We were gonna call the police! We thought you fell asleep and left the gas on and now you all dead!” With the two of us gone, they must have thought it was some kind of lovers’ suicide pact.

Mike Gotovac (bartender, Dan Tana’s): I got a job here in 1968. One of my first customers was Harry Dean, and we quickly became good friends. He knew his limits with the drink, and could always walk out on his feet.

Helena Kallianiotes (former belly dancer, Stanton’s oldest Hollywood friend): I met Harry Dean in 1961, so I’ve known him the longest. I’m the one who brought everyone together. I was dancing in a nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard, and Harry used to sit on the side of the stage with a guitar. He doesn’t let everyone into his world. We used to discuss religion, Jesus, and philosophies. We didn’t agree, but I love arguing with him. We’d argue until four in the morning at Dan Tana’s.

Dennis Fanning (retired L.A.P.D. detective): They stuck Sean Penn in the back of my police car for research on the movie Colors. Off-duty, myself and a few other cops would drink in this parking structure we called “The Penthouse.” One night, we were drinking and a limo pulled up with Penn and Harry Dean. That was the first time I met Harry.

In 1987, my wife and I went for a New Year’s Eve dinner with Penn and Madonna. Afterwards, we went to a place called On the Rocks, which was a private club above the Roxy, and Harry Dean was there. Over the years, we would meet and hang out, but I really got to know him after some shady businessmen ripped him off. We were friends, but after that, I started to hang around more to protect him, and make sure he wasn’t getting fucked with. We started hanging out at Ago’s all the time, with De Niro, Nicholson, and all the guys.

Foster Timms (singer/songwriter): We’d break the guitar out at Ago’s and everyone would gather. It made for a lot of beautiful moments. We’d start singing, and Joe Pesci would show up and pick up the guitar. One night, Paul Sorvino stood up and belted out an opera. Harry did the same, from across the room at our table. Harry’s got soul to burn, man.

Logan Sparks, Drago Sumonja, Foster Timms, and John Carroll Lynch.

Photographs by Tomo Muscionico.

Logan Sparks (co-writer, Lucky): I can’t explain how powerful a voice he had, and how delicate a vibrato. After he would sing a song, I would clap a little, and he would smile and nod his head in a quasi-bow. We would sit in silence for a bit, and it wasn’t awkward. Maybe he was testing me, but more likely he was just being still and it had nothing to do with me.

Rebecca De Mornay: He really is asking and really is listening to whoever he’s talking to. Most people ask questions but don’t really care about the response. That was the first thing I recognized about Harry Dean. We got to know each other for five months on the Francis Coppola shoot, but we were just platonic. When the movie was over, I fell in love with him.

Laila Nabulsi (producer, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas): Harry has always been my late-night call. The phone will ring around midnight, and I know it’s him. We usually discuss Buddhism, and its teaching in all its forms, Zen, Tibetan. And jokes, always jokes—but mainly metaphysics. Harry is a deep cat.

Craig Susser (owner, Craig’s): I started as a bartender at Dan Tana’s in 1986, and I saw Harry every night. He didn’t come in until 11:30 at night, and stayed until close. A lot of people ask where he gets the fortitude. I don’t understand the way he’s built to sustain such damage. The man runs on alcohol and cigarettes, and believes in nothing. That’s all he’ll tell you.

Mouse (Dan Tana’s regular): He’ll tell ya, “You’re nothing.” Everybody would get mad, because they didn’t understand why he’d always be saying that. It’s his way of expressing that we’re all just individuals on the planet Earth—that you’re no bigger or better than anyone else. Him and Marlon Brando were tight, and he used to get Marlon all the time. He’d say to Marlon, “You know, we’re all nothing.” Marlon would say, “What the hell do you mean?”

Ed Begley Jr.: Harry doesn’t believe in God, but he believes in the Big Bang. He’s always been quick to point out, whenever I’m waxing philosophical about something, “Begley, you’re forgetting the main point. You are nothing.”

Craig Susser: He treats everyone exactly the same, and I’ve literally never seen his behavior change, whether it’s a beautiful starlet, or some person he met on the street. One time he said to me, “Look at that coffee cup. It’s not trying to be anything but a coffee cup.” He firmly believes in nothing.

Mouse: He’s studied all kinds of philosophies, drank, snorted, and shot dope like a motherfucker. I get what Harry Dean is saying, but to me, it’s a negative outlook. But, it could be positive to him, and I gotta respect that.

Rebecca De Mornay: As Harry Dean famously says, I left him for Tom Cruise, which was the truth. [Laughs.] Harry got really angry and flew to Chicago, where we were filming Risky Business. He went to the hotel and pounded on Tom’s door. I asked, “Harry, what would you have done if Tom had answered?” Harry said, “You know? I don’t know.”

Harry Dean went on to become one of the greatest, strongest friends in my life. The friendship was great, but the relationship of a man trusting, loving, and really respecting a woman was something he had problems with. He suddenly realized his mistake, right when I left him. He had this awakening and realized I wasn’t a villain. He became my closest friend, coincidentally, right after I broke up with Tom two-and-a-half years later [Laughs.]

Bret Easton Ellis (author, American Psycho, Less Than Zero): Harry was often cast as a Harry Dean Stanton-type, and those of us who have seen most of his screen performances realize he has more range than was often allowed—but isn’t that true for most screen actors? I remember this most clearly in his one devastating scene in The Rose. He plays country singer Billy Ray, whom Bette Midler’s title character is a huge fan of. Midway through the scene, she meets him for the first time (she’s covering his songs on her tour) and he quickly humiliates her. Filmmakers rarely tapped into the kind of bravura cruelty that this master screen actor could achieve so effortlessly, and it suggested a much larger range than what American movies allowed him.

John Carroll Lynch (actor, Lucky director): In every movie I’ve seen him in, he’s always the one that’s most human, that has the most connective value emotionally. You empathize with his quiet sense of presence. It doesn’t matter if it’s Alien, The Avengers, or Big Love, where he played a really cruel, cold man. He’s so human in every role. He’s flesh and blood, man. He never does anything that isn’t flesh and blood. If you want to learn how to act, watch the last five minutes of The Straight Story over and over and over again. Richard Farnsworth lives the movie, and Harry Dean feels the movie in five minutes. The minute he recognizes what his brother did, and the melting of his vendetta towards his brother, I get goosebumps thinking about it. I aspire to that kind of ability.

Paul Herman (actor): I met Harry Dean in Morocco on [Martin] Scorsese’sThe Last Temptation of Christ, with Willem Dafoe and Harvey Keitel. The first night Harry arrived, he walked into the hotel and saw about 12 of us with long beards. [He] took a look around and said, “Holy shit. Nobody told me to grow a beard!” Harvey Keitel said, “Harry? Did you ever research the time period?” Scorsese hadn’t bothered to tell him, because he assumed it was obvious.

Rebecca De Mornay: Harry Dean and I are best friends, and Tom and I don’t talk. He lets you completely in, when he loves you. He’s biologically unable to lie. To be an actor is to not act. He was born to be an actor. He doesn’t know how to not be honest, and that’s also the trouble.

Logan Sparks: His grandfather was witness to the Civil War. Powered flight was 23 years old when he was born. The man saw a lot. We just clicked. Harry once told me, “I have a bullshit meter that’s hair trigger, and I’ve seen it go off the scales, but you’re O.K.”

Harry Dean Stanton on stage at the Harry Dean Stanton Awards, and Evening of Conversation and Music.

Photographs by Tomo Muscionico.

Paul Herman: After the shoot, we were all back in New York. Harry was visiting, and he and Harvey [Keitel] were going to meet me after lunch. Harry told Harvey that someone in L.A. had told him that I had died. Harvey said, “What the hell are you talking about? We’re going to meet Paulie now.” I said, “Harry, if that was true, why didn’t you try and go to my fuckin’ funeral?” Harry said, “I was busy.”

Drago Sumonja: We modeled the bar in Lucky after Dan Tana’s; we just took stuff from what we knew about Harry and his thoughts on life, and put it directly into the screenplay. Some of the stuff we lifted verbatim from Harry. We’d be rehearsing with Harry, and he’d say, “I can’t memorize all this.” We’d say, “You’ve told us this same fucking story 30 fucking times! Just tell it again!”

John Carroll Lynch: Directing Harry, with much of the script based on things he’s said 10,000 times in real life, it’s different to say it on camera. When you record it for posterity, I think it really made him think about all his sayings. What does it really mean? The minute you put a frame around that saying, it takes on a whole different meaning to the times you’ve said it in a bar with a tequila in hand at Dan Tana’s. He takes direction, but he needs to know why. On Lucky, the moments he most responded to were the ones when there was a difficult line.

Craig Susser: If you think about where he came from, what he’s achieved and how long he’s lived, who am I to say that he didn’t get it right? There’s no affect to him, and there’s plenty of times he’s told me to go fuck myself. But that’s him being real, and I’ll always love him for that.

David O. Selznick and Louis B. Mayer

David O. Selznick, son of silent-movie producer Lewis Selznick, was already on his way through the ranks of new-to-talkies Hollywood when, in 1930, he forged the greatest union of Hollywood families in history by marrying Louis B. Mayer’s daughter Irene. Selznick had left MGM for Paramount and then RKO when he returned to work with his father-in-law at MGM in 1933, given a job as vice president and head of his own production unit at the studio. By then, Mayer was one of the most powerful studio heads in Hollywood, overseeing “more stars than there are in heaven.” In 1927, Mayer amassed 36 founders from various parts of the film industry to create the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—the organization responsible for the Academy Awards. The guidance of his father-in-law at MGM paid off for Selznick when he left in 1935 to head up his own independent studio, Selznick International Pictures, which produced the likes of A Star Is Born (1937), Rebecca (1940), and (adjusted for inflation) the highest-grossing film of all time, Gone with the Wind (1939). His son Daniel Selznick became a film producer as well.

Photo: From Everett Collection.

The Coppolas

The Coppola family tree branches wide, but its root system is strong thanks to its spiritual patriarch: director Francis Ford Coppola. The director who defined 70s Hollywood with The Godfather (1972), The Conversation (1974), and Apocalypse Now (1979), Coppola also backed the work of fellow film titans Akira Kurosawa and Jean-Luc Godard with his American Zoetrope studio, co-founded with George Lucas in 1969. American Zoetrope also produced The Virgin Suicides, the first film by Coppola’s daughter, Sofia Coppola, who won an Oscar for writing her second film, Lost in Translation. His son Roman Coppola is a Golden Globe-winning filmmaker, and his other son, Gian-Carlo Coppola, was a film producer whose daughter, Gia Coppola, debuted her own film, Palo Alto, in 2013. Francis’s sister, Talia Shire, is an Academy Award-nominated actress whose son is actor Jason Schwartzman; Francis’s brother, August, was a prominent film academic and executive whose son is Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage.

Photo: From RDA/Getty Images.

The Warner Brothers

The titular Warner Bros.—Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner—built one of the first major Hollywood studios on the power of a dog. After they incorporated their company in 1923, they discovered a trained German Shepherd named Rin Tin Tin, who became a breakout box-office success and paved the way financially for them to take a big risk with the release of the first “talkie” film in 1927, The Jazz Singer. Their gamble paid off, the sound era began, and Warner Bros. continues to this day as one of Hollywood’s cornerstone studios. As one of the Big Eight studios during Hollywood’s Golden Age, it made stars out of its contract actors, employing legendary names like Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, and Errol Flynn. Under the various brothers’ oversight through the years (mostly Jack’s, who retired in 1969), they produced classics like Casablanca (1942), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), My Fair Lady (1964), and Bonnie and Clyde (1967).

Photo: From Everett Collection.

The Marx Brothers

The five Marx Brothers—Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo, and Gummo—were successful before Hollywood even began. The brothers became vaudeville stars in the early 1900s and starred in several celebrated Broadway revues, which eventually earned them enough clout to move on to film. After experimenting with early talkies, they worked under contract with Paramount to make three of the most respected comedies of all time: Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932), and Duck Soup (1933). Their groundbreaking character-driven humor, searing one-liners, and satirical takes on serious subject matter influenced every generation of comedians who came after them, from Lucille Ball to Woody Allen to Judd Apatow. In his later years, Groucho even conquered two more mediums with the successful radio show-turned-TV quiz show You Bet Your Life (1947-1961).

Photo: From Everett Collection.

The Redstones

Michael Redstone founded theater company National Amusements, Inc. in 1936, which his son Sumner Redstone (as chairman and C.E.O.) grew into a $40 billion empire and one of America’s biggest media conglomerates, with control of the CBS Corporation, Viacom, and Paramount Pictures, among others. Sumner Redstone’s outlook that “content is king” revolutionized the industry, introducing the idea that distribution channels can change and evolve, but content remains essential. His son, Brent, sold his stake in the company in 2007, but daughter Shari Redstone continues to control 20 percent of the business, even since her father’s resignation in 2016. Shari is currently president of National Amusements and vice chair of CBS Corporation and Viacom.

Photo: By Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

The Kardashians

The Kardashian family patriarch, Robert Kardashian, was a relatively low-key footnote in the media spectacle of the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995. It was after his death in 2003, though, that his wife and children went on to essentially invent a new form of Hollywood celebrity. The Kardashians rode the rising wave of social media in the early 2010s to flip the fame equation: through their reality-TV shows and subsequent individual business ventures, they’ve publicized and monetized their every move. Under the tutelage of “momager” Kris Jenner, Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Rob, and Kris’s daughters from her second marriage, Kylie and Kendall Jenner, transformed themselves from Hollywood socialites into media magnates. Caitlyn Jenner, Kris’s former spouse, was best known as an Olympian before coming out in 2015 and becoming the most famous trans woman on the planet.

Photo: By Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage.

The Sheen/Estevezes

All four of actor Martin Sheen’s children—Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Ramon Estevez, and Renee Estevez—followed him into acting, with Charlie and Emilio establishing flourishing careers to rival their father’s. Martin’s ascent to the acting A-list began with roles in Badlands (1973) and Apocalypse Now (1979), and in the late 90s his role as the president on The West Wing made him a household name. Emilio emerged as a key member of the Brat Pack of the 1980s, and enjoyed box-office success in the Mighty Ducks franchise before transitioning behind the camera to direct. A bona fide movie star in the 1980s and 90s following hits like Wall Street (1987) and the Hot Shots! franchise, Charlie went on to earn $1.8 million per episode of his CBS show Two and a Half Men, becoming the highest-paid actor on television—before a public fallout with the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre, and bouts of manic behavior led to his being fired in 2011.

Photo: By Ron Galella/WireImage.

David O. Selznick and Louis B. Mayer

David O. Selznick, son of silent-movie producer Lewis Selznick, was already on his way through the ranks of new-to-talkies Hollywood when, in 1930, he forged the greatest union of Hollywood families in history by marrying Louis B. Mayer’s daughter Irene. Selznick had left MGM for Paramount and then RKO when he returned to work with his father-in-law at MGM in 1933, given a job as vice president and head of his own production unit at the studio. By then, Mayer was one of the most powerful studio heads in Hollywood, overseeing “more stars than there are in heaven.” In 1927, Mayer amassed 36 founders from various parts of the film industry to create the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—the organization responsible for the Academy Awards. The guidance of his father-in-law at MGM paid off for Selznick when he left in 1935 to head up his own independent studio, Selznick International Pictures, which produced the likes of A Star Is Born (1937), Rebecca (1940), and (adjusted for inflation) the highest-grossing film of all time, Gone with the Wind (1939). His son Daniel Selznick became a film producer as well.

From Everett Collection.

The Coppolas

The Coppola family tree branches wide, but its root system is strong thanks to its spiritual patriarch: director Francis Ford Coppola. The director who defined 70s Hollywood with The Godfather (1972), The Conversation (1974), and Apocalypse Now (1979), Coppola also backed the work of fellow film titans Akira Kurosawa and Jean-Luc Godard with his American Zoetrope studio, co-founded with George Lucas in 1969. American Zoetrope also produced The Virgin Suicides, the first film by Coppola’s daughter, Sofia Coppola, who won an Oscar for writing her second film, Lost in Translation. His son Roman Coppola is a Golden Globe-winning filmmaker, and his other son, Gian-Carlo Coppola, was a film producer whose daughter, Gia Coppola, debuted her own film, Palo Alto, in 2013. Francis’s sister, Talia Shire, is an Academy Award-nominated actress whose son is actor Jason Schwartzman; Francis’s brother, August, was a prominent film academic and executive whose son is Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage.

From RDA/Getty Images.

The Warner Brothers

The titular Warner Bros.—Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner—built one of the first major Hollywood studios on the power of a dog. After they incorporated their company in 1923, they discovered a trained German Shepherd named Rin Tin Tin, who became a breakout box-office success and paved the way financially for them to take a big risk with the release of the first “talkie” film in 1927, The Jazz Singer. Their gamble paid off, the sound era began, and Warner Bros. continues to this day as one of Hollywood’s cornerstone studios. As one of the Big Eight studios during Hollywood’s Golden Age, it made stars out of its contract actors, employing legendary names like Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, and Errol Flynn. Under the various brothers’ oversight through the years (mostly Jack’s, who retired in 1969), they produced classics like Casablanca (1942), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), My Fair Lady (1964), and Bonnie and Clyde (1967).

From Everett Collection.

The Marx Brothers

The five Marx Brothers—Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo, and Gummo—were successful before Hollywood even began. The brothers became vaudeville stars in the early 1900s and starred in several celebrated Broadway revues, which eventually earned them enough clout to move on to film. After experimenting with early talkies, they worked under contract with Paramount to make three of the most respected comedies of all time: Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932), and Duck Soup (1933). Their groundbreaking character-driven humor, searing one-liners, and satirical takes on serious subject matter influenced every generation of comedians who came after them, from Lucille Ball to Woody Allen to Judd Apatow. In his later years, Groucho even conquered two more mediums with the successful radio show-turned-TV quiz show You Bet Your Life (1947-1961).

From Everett Collection.

The Barrymores

It began in 1874, when Maurice Barrymore moved from England to New York City and made his Broadway debut alongside actress Georgiana Drew, herself the daughter of an acting family. They married in 1876, and their three children, Lionel, Ethel, and John Barrymore, each found their own path to fame. Lionel’s long acting and directing career spanned stage and screen, with roles in hits like Grand Hotel (1932), Key Largo (1948), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), and 1931’s A Free Soul (for which he won an Academy Award). Ethel had a renowned career in the theater—she was a founding supporter of the Actors’ Equity Association, and still has a theater named for her on 47th Street. John became the most celebrated Shakespearean stage actor in the world during the 1920s—Laurence Olivier and Alec Guinness both counted him as an influence—and he also starred in popular films like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Sherlock Holmes (1922), and Don Juan (1926). John’s son, John Drew Barrymore, was also an actor, though the family legacy is now carried on by his daughter: actress, producer, and director Drew Barrymore, who has starred in over 50 films and heads her own production company, Flower Films.

From Bettmann.

The Fondas

The Fonda family story begins with Henry Fonda, who made his Hollywood debut in 1935 and went on to appear in over 80 movies—many of which, like The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and My Darling Clementine (1946), positioned him as the quintessential American hero. He didn’t receive his first best-actor Academy Award until he was 76, for 1981’s On Golden Pond—in which he starred alongside his daughter Jane. Jane rose to stardom as a bankable actress in popular films like Barefoot in the Park (1967) and Barbarella (1968), then went on to win two Oscars, for 1971’s Klute and 1978’s Coming Home. She also cemented herself as a political activist and feminist icon. Her brother, Peter, was a prominent figure in the counterculture scene of the 1960s and rose to stardom in the landmark 1969 film Easy Rider, which he co-wrote, produced, and starred in; he earned an Academy Award nomination for his role in Ulee’s Gold (1997). Peter’s daughter, Bridget Fonda, and Jane’s son, Troy Garity, both actors, continue the family legacy into a third generation.

From Everett Collection.

The Murdochs

By the time Rupert Murdoch came to Hollywood, acquiring a struggling 20th Century Fox in 1985, he had already dominated print and broadcast media in his native Australia and Britain—and was well on his way to doing so in the United States. In a decade that saw the Hollywood studios of old absorbed by massive corporations, Murdoch was a vivid symbol of that change, and he shaped a studio that would produce two of the top-grossing movies of all time—Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009)—as well as reshape the independent film business in its image with the launch of Fox Searchlight, which began to flourish with films like Little Miss Sunshine (2006) in the mid-00s. As of 2013, the film and television division is now known as 21st Century Fox. Murdoch’s son Lachlan Murdoch co-executive chairs 21st Century Fox with him, while his son James Murdoch acts as C.E.O.

By Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images.

Dore Schary and Jeremy Zimmer

Grandfather Dore Schary and grandson Jeremy Zimmer (Schary’s daughter Jill Schary Robinson is Zimmer’s mother) have made their mark on the film industry in separate roles, and generations apart. Schary was a screenwriter-turned-V.P. of production at RKO, then head of production and eventually president of MGM in the 1940s and 50s. Zimmer currently serves as the co-founder and C.E.O. of United Talent Agency, established in 1991. Schary worked on over 300 films, including An American in Paris (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Father of the Bride (1950); he won an Oscar in 1939 for his screenplay for Boys Town. During the anti-Communist scare of the late 1940s and 1950s, Schary became a visible opponent of the House Un-American Activities Committee and refused to deny work to the blacklisted, accused Communist “Hollywood 10.” Decades later, Schary would foster an introduction that gave his grandson, Zimmer, a job in the William Morris Agency mailroom at the age of 19. Today, as the C.E.O. of U.T.A., Zimmer oversees one of the biggest talent agencies in the world, with a roster of clients that includes Harrison Ford, Wes Anderson, Joel and Ethan Coen, Channing Tatum, and Angelina Jolie.

By Peter Stackpole/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images.

The Garland/Minnellis

In his 26 years working with MGM, Vincente Minnelli directed some of the most glorious movie musicals ever made; he won an Oscar for 1958’s Gigi and helmed classics like An American in Paris (1951), The Band Wagon (1953), and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). It was on the St. Louis set where he met his first wife, Judy Garland, a vaudeville star who was signed to MGM at the age of 13 and, at 16, played the role that would define her career: Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Garland and Minnelli were married for six years and had one child, Liza, born in 1946. Liza’s first on-screen appearance came at the age of three, opposite her mother in The Good Old Summertime. She went on to win an Oscar for her starring role in Cabaret, and her sprawling music, stage, and film career has earned her the coveted EGOT: one Emmy, one Grammy, one Oscar, and four Tony Awards.

From Bettmann.

Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford

Douglas Fairbanks was known as “The King of Hollywood” for his swashbuckling turns in silent films like The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), and Robin Hood (1922). When he married America’s original sweetheart, Mary Pickford, in 1920, they became Hollywood’s first power couple. Pickford hailed from an acting family (her sister, Lottie, and brother, Jack, were also stars in their own right), and in the early days of film, Pickford pushed for stars to be billed under their own names. She and Fairbanks, alongside Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith, co-founded United Artists in 1919, in an effort to break away from the powerful studio system and control their own interests. Pickford and Fairbanks were also 2 of the 36 founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927, with Fairbanks elected as its first president. Fairbanks’s son with his first wife, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., enjoyed his own successful acting career in the 1920s-1940s—he and wife Joan Crawford were another power couple, in the original Fairbanks-Pickford mold.

By Nickolas Muray/Condé Nast/Getty Images.

The Smiths

Will Smith made a then-unheard-of leap from sitcom stardom to blockbuster status in the mid-1990s, and set a record in the process: in 2008, he became the only actor in history to boast eight consecutive films that grossed over $100 million in the domestic box office. In 1997, Smith married Jada Pinkett, star of over 30 films, including 2017’s Girls Trip; the two have also turned their eye for success onto their children, Jaden and Willow, who both began their careers starring in films alongside their parents. The Smiths co-produced Jaden’s breakout hit, a 2010 remake of The Karate Kid, and after Willow’s debut single, “Whip My Hair,” went platinum in 2010, she became the youngest artist signed to Jay-Z’s record label. Both teens continue to work as actors and musicians, and—through their social-media presences and headline-making interviews—are doing their part to redefine the Hollywood dynasty for a new generation.

By Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images.

The Hustons

One of the first big stars in “talkie” films, Walter Huston appeared in over 50 movies and received an Oscar for his role in 1948’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which was directed by his son, John—they became the first father and son to win Oscars for the same movie. John wrote and directed some of Hollywood’s most legendary films featuring its greatest stars, including The Maltese Falcon (1941), The African Queen (1951), and The Misfits (1961), won two Oscars, and also directed his daughter Anjelica to an Oscar of her own in Prizzi’s Honor (1985). Anjelica’s half-brother, Danny Huston, has appeared in Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola, Tim Burton, and __Ridley Scott __ films, while her brother Tony largely shied from the limelight after writing a few well-received screenplays, including Academy Award-nominated The Dead (1987). Tony’s son, Jack, however, has brought the family into its fourth generation, with roles on Boardwalk Empire and in American Hustle.

From John Springer Collection/Corbis/Getty Images.

The Fisher/Reynolds

When musician and actor Eddie Fisher married actress Debbie Reynolds in 1955, they were a golden pair—Eddie, as king of the 1950s pop charts, was at the height of his crooning career, and Debbie, just off her acclaimed breakout role in Singin’ in the Rain (1952), was a fresh new starlet. It all ended quickly, though, when in 1959 Eddie began an affair with—and eventually married—Debbie’s friend Elizabeth Taylor. Eddie’s career never quite recovered from the ensuing scandal, and Debbie—who’d go on to enjoy a robust film and stage career, including an Academy Award-nominated role in 1964’s The Unsinkable Molly Brown—found it difficult to buck her “branding” as the jilted wife. Eddie and Debbie’s daughter, Carrie Fisher, began her acting career at 18 in Shampoo and had one of history’s most iconic roles as Princess Leia in the Star Wars series, in addition to a robust career as a writer and stage performer. Carrie’s brother, Todd, is a producer and cinematographer, and also curates the remainder of his mother’s extensive movie memorabilia collection. Todd and Carrie’s half-sisters, Joely and Tricia Leigh Fisher, are actresses and singers, and Carrie’s daughter, Billie Lourd, is poised to carry on the family tradition with a promising acting career—including a role in the new Star Wars films.

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The Zuckers

Brothers David and Jerry Zucker started out in sketch comedy, which paved the way for them to revolutionize Hollywood’s comedy spoof genre alongside childhood friend Jim Abrahams. The filmmaking trio (known collectively as “ZAZ”) broke out with 1977’s cult classic The Kentucky Fried Movie (which they wrote) and entered the pantheon with their 1980 hit Airplane! They also created the Naked Gun series and were instrumental in establishing Leslie Nielsen’s later career as an enduring figure of deadpan comedy. David’s solo work—including BASEketball (1998), Scary Movie 3 (2003), My Boss’s Daughter (2003), and Scary Movie 4 (2006)—stuck squarely in the comedy wheelhouse, while Jerry’s veered into drama—he directed 1990’s Academy Award-winning Ghost, First Knight (1995), and produced 2011’s Friends with Benefits, to name a few.

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The Bergman/Rosellinis

A major figure in the Italian neorealist movement, director Roberto Rossellini’s work influenced major directors far beyond Italy’s borders, including Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and Martin Scorsese. But Rossellini gained Hollywood’s attention when he began an affair with Academy Award-winning actress Ingrid Bergman. The Swedish Bergman, who’d starred in classics like Casablanca (1942) and Notorious (1946), was a major Hollywood star when she and Rossellini began an extramarital affair on the set of their 1950 film, Stromboli. The resulting scandal around the affair, and the birth of their son, Renato, reached such a fever pitch in the United States that Bergman was denounced on the floor of the United States Senate, and she retreated from the industry for years before a triumphant, Oscar-winning comeback with 1956’s Anastasia. The couple’s daughter Isabella Rossellini is an Emmy-nominated actress and model who’s appeared in over 80 films and TV shows.

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The Baldwins

The four Baldwin brothers are well known for their acting contributions—the eldest, Alec Baldwin, has enjoyed the most mainstream success, earning an Oscar nomination for The Cooler, plus two Emmys, three Golden Globes, and seven SAG Awards for his role on NBC’s 30 Rock.Daniel, William, and Stephen were all essentially discovered by Oliver Stone, who cast them in his 1989 film Born on the Fourth of July—they’ve cumulatively gone on to appear in almost 300 films and TV shows. The brothers have now fathered a crop of famous daughters: Alec’s daughter Ireland (with actress Kim Basinger), Stephen’s daughters, Hailey and Alaia, and William’s daughter Jameson are poised to create a dynasty in a different industry—all but the latter (still an undecided young teen) have signed major modeling contracts.

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The Newmans

The Newmans are here to prove that you don’t have to have a famous face to create a Hollywood dynasty. Brothers Alfred, Lionel, and Emil, children of Russian immigrants, all became noted Hollywood composers and conductors; Alfred won nine Oscars, Lionel one, and Emil had credits on 15 films in 1943 alone. Two of Alfred’s sons followed in the family business: Thomas and David both continue to work as composers, with 14 Oscar nominations for Thomas and one for David. Their sister, Maria, has been commissioned to create original scores for silent films. Alfred had one brother, Irving, who didn’t become a musician, but Irving’s son, Randy, did; Randy Newman has won two Oscars as a songwriter, and has three Emmys and six Grammys. He occasionally collaborates with his cousin Joey, an orchestrator and composer, who is the grandson of Lionel. And Randy’s son Amos is taking the family legacy in yet another new direction, with his work representing composers at WME.

The Zanucks

Darryl F. Zanuck began his career writing scripts at Warner Bros. in the 1920s, before breaking away to co-found 20th Century Pictures, Inc. in 1933. Within two years, Zanuck’s company had broken box-office records with 18 of its 19 films released, and it became the most successful independent studio in Hollywood. Zanuck and his co-founder purchased Fox Film Corp. in 1935 and formed 20th Century Fox. Zanuck left the studio briefly in 1956, before returning to clean up the famously faltering production of 1963’s Cleopatra, which almost bankrupted the studio. His son, Richard D. Zanuck, worked with his father at the studio to bring in fresh hits and talent—discovering Francis Ford Coppola, ushering Robert Altman to fame, and backing massive hits Planet of the Apes (1968) and The Sound of Music (1965). The younger Zanuck broke away from 20th Century Fox in 1972 to form his own production company at Universal Pictures, which produced two of Steven Spielberg’s early directorial efforts (including 1975’s Jaws), as well as hits like 1985’s Cocoon and Driving Miss Daisy (1989). He went on to become Tim Burton’s producer of choice, working with the filmmaker six times. Richard’s son Dean now runs his father’s production studio, the Zanuck Company.

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The Redgraves

The Redgrave family boasts four generations of actors, starting with silent-film star Roy Redgrave and his son Michael, known for his extensive theater work as well as an Academy Award-nominated turn in 1947’s Mourning Becomes Electra. The third generation is perhaps the best known—including Michael’s daughter Vanessa Redgrave, with Oscar, Emmy, Tony, BAFTA, SAG, and Golden Globe wins under her belt. Michael’s son, Corin, was an actor and political activist, and his daughter Lynn was an Academy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated actress. Vanessa’s daughter Natasha Richardson led the fourth generation as a Tony Award-winning actress; Vanessa’s other daughter, Joely Richardson, continues a flourishing acting career, and her son, Carlo Nero, has worked as a director and screenwriter. Corin’s daughter, Jemma Redgrave, has also acted steadily in film, TV, and stage productions.

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The Beatty/MacLaine/Benings

Brother and sister Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are now six decades into careers as two of Hollywood’s most lauded players. MacLaine, a six-time Academy Award nominee, counts on her resume classics like The Apartment (1960), Being There (1979), and 1983’s Terms of Endearment (for which she won a best-actress Oscar). Beatty is the only person to be nominated two times for Academy Awards in acting, directing, writing, and producing a single film (1978’s Heaven Can Wait and 1981’s Reds, for which he won a best-director Oscar). In 1992, he married four-time Academy Award-nominated actress Annette Bening, and the actor remains a link between multiple generations of Hollywood—from his start in the studio system of Hollywood to the independent productions of the 70s to his modern directorial efforts like 2016’s Rules Don’t Apply.

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The Wayanses

The Wayans family is one of Hollywood’s largest and most successful comedic dynasties of both TV and film, with its members often collaborating together on projects. The first-generation siblings—Keenan, Damon, Kim, Shawn, Marlon, Dwayne, Nadia, Elvira, Diedre, and Vonnie—have produced, directed, written, and starred in dozens of films and TV shows, and boast a combined net worth over $100 million. Damon and Keenan are best known for their groundbreaking 1990s sketch-comedy TV series In Living Color, which starred many of their siblings and launched the careers of Jennifer Lopez, Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, Rosie Perez, and more. Keenan also created the Scary Movie franchise of the early 00s, paving the way for a new generation of spoof comedies. While the original generation is still splashed across film and TV screens, a massive crop of new Wayans are finding fame of their own—most notably Damon’s son Damon Wayans Jr., whose film credits include Wayans collaborations like 2009’s Dance Flick and roles on TV shows like New Girl and Happy Endings.

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The Douglases

Kirk Douglas became famous for dramatic roles in Westerns and war movies in the 1950s, but he also bucked the studio system of the time by founding Bryna Productions in 1955, in an effort to fund his own projects. Among the 19 films produced were collaborations with Stanley Kubrick. Kirk also gave screenwriter Dalton Trumbo an on-screen credit for Spartacus, in defiance of the Hollywood blacklist. Kirk purchased the rights to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and gave them to his son Michael, who produced the 1975 best-picture winner. Michael has since enjoyed a thriving acting career that has included Oscar-, Golden Globe-, Emmy-, and SAG Award-winning roles, along with a 2009 A.F.I. Lifetime Achievement Award. Michael collaborated with his brother Joel, a producer, on The Jewel of the Nile (1985) and Romancing the Stone (1984), and his half-brother Peter is a successful producer. In 2003, Kirk, Michael, Kirk’s wife Diana, and Michael’s son Cameron all appeared in a film titled, appropriately enough, It Runs in the Family.

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The Redstones

Michael Redstone founded theater company National Amusements, Inc. in 1936, which his son Sumner Redstone (as chairman and C.E.O.) grew into a $40 billion empire and one of America’s biggest media conglomerates, with control of the CBS Corporation, Viacom, and Paramount Pictures, among others. Sumner Redstone’s outlook that “content is king” revolutionized the industry, introducing the idea that distribution channels can change and evolve, but content remains essential. His son, Brent, sold his stake in the company in 2007, but daughter Shari Redstone continues to control 20 percent of the business, even since her father’s resignation in 2016. Shari is currently president of National Amusements and vice chair of CBS Corporation and Viacom.

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The Kardashians

The Kardashian family patriarch, Robert Kardashian, was a relatively low-key footnote in the media spectacle of the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995. It was after his death in 2003, though, that his wife and children went on to essentially invent a new form of Hollywood celebrity. The Kardashians rode the rising wave of social media in the early 2010s to flip the fame equation: through their reality-TV shows and subsequent individual business ventures, they’ve publicized and monetized their every move. Under the tutelage of “momager” Kris Jenner, Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Rob, and Kris’s daughters from her second marriage, Kylie and Kendall Jenner, transformed themselves from Hollywood socialites into media magnates. Caitlyn Jenner, Kris’s former spouse, was best known as an Olympian before coming out in 2015 and becoming the most famous trans woman on the planet.

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The Sheen/Estevezes

All four of actor Martin Sheen’s children—Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Ramon Estevez, and Renee Estevez—followed him into acting, with Charlie and Emilio establishing flourishing careers to rival their father’s. Martin’s ascent to the acting A-list began with roles in Badlands (1973) and Apocalypse Now (1979), and in the late 90s his role as the president on The West Wing made him a household name. Emilio emerged as a key member of the Brat Pack of the 1980s, and enjoyed box-office success in the Mighty Ducks franchise before transitioning behind the camera to direct. A bona fide movie star in the 1980s and 90s following hits like Wall Street (1987) and the Hot Shots! franchise, Charlie went on to earn $1.8 million per episode of his CBS show Two and a Half Men, becoming the highest-paid actor on television—before a public fallout with the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre, and bouts of manic behavior led to his being fired in 2011.